With yesterday's news that Hugh Jackman could star as Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper's planned movie adaptation of the musical Les Miserables, the obvious next question is which actor would be able to hold his own against Jackman playing Javert, the police inspector who spends years trying to hunt down the falsely imprisoned Valjean. Deadline reports that the man to do it might be Paul Bettany, who has read for the role and sang some of the songs for Hooper and presumably the producers.

Bettany has spent more time chasing strange CGI creatures over the last few years, starring in the seemingly identical Priest and Legion, and it would be great to see Bettany return to the kind of prestigious work he was doing in the early 00s with a musical that's bound to get a ton of attention-- even if it weren't Hooper's follow-up to the Oscar-winning The King's Speech, it's an adaptation of one of the most popular musicals of all time. Bettany is a significant enough star to hold his own against Jackman, and his interest indicates there might be a ton of big names lining up to be part of the film-- something that's fine by me so long as they've all got the talent to back it up. Check out this video of the big number "Confrontation" for an idea of what Jackman and Bettany could be throwing at each other in the movie.